Peter Hall
I have always made things and had a passion for technology, both old and new. I built my own 3D printer and eight years later it's still going strong (albeit with some upgrades). My first quad-copter followed only a year later. Ever since then, I have been hooked on making autonomous vehicles. It is very rewarding to see something I have built go off and do exactly what it’s supposed to. From restoring my 1979 MGB-GT to experimenting with Tesla coils I always have an interesting project on the go, be it hardware, software or a combination of the two.
Given my background, studying engineering was a natural fit. I graduated with a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. I also picked up an award for the best dissertation, for my work on wind turbine simulation. I was subsequently offered a place on the engineering doctorate scheme at Swansea. It was at this point that I met Matt and we started developing autonomous unmanned vehicles in our spare time.
I have become a keen contributor to the Ardupilot firmware, the world's leading open source software for unmanned vehicles. I have made several firmware contributions to improve the performance of VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft. Additionally, being a keen sailor, adding autonomous sailing capability to the existing rover firmware played to my strengths. I am pictured with the very first autonomous sailing boat running the Ardupilot firmware. It can sail completely autonomously using just the power of the wind. I am very proud of its capability.
I have a particular interest in unusual vehicle types. I have added bi-copter support to the code base and am currently developing the firmware to operate mono-copters.
Given my broad engineering background and experience with developing all manner of unusual vehicles, I am confident that we will be able to design a vehicle to meet your needs.